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Topic: Wing Specific Hydrofoils (Read 2576 times)

I was down at Windance yesterday to pick up up an (air) wing that had arrived and they let me know that Moses has designed a Hydrofoil wing for Wingsurfing that is coming available. Pretty sure this is the one https://store.moseshydrofoil.com/products/wing-1020-surfwing . That set me to wondering. What would a wing specific hydrofoil look like? What is missing in the currently available foils?

Looks like a very nice wing, highish but not ridiculous AR. Useful size. My gut is telling me their wing to fuse connection is lacking in contact area for larger wings, arguably worse than the Go Foil / Gong square taper (which is still weak compared to Axis and some others).

That set me to wondering. What would a wing specific hydrofoil look like? What is missing in the currently available foils?

Its all about speed profile for the wing.

Ocean waves move at 8 to 12 mph, most normal sized waves. The key to FOIL surfing was getting wings to work at these slower speeds.

I recall from my windsurfing days that a windsurfer started to plane at 17 mph. Much faster than a typical ride on a wave. These wingding specific foils will probably be optimal in the 12 to 20 mph range. Meaning slightly thinner and faster than a good wing for surfing in typical crappy waves.

Beasho - interesting point - for me, one of the main attractions of winging is it's compatability with wave riding, whether downwinding, or traditional surf riding. Having a foil optimised for faster than wave speed doesn't do it for me.

Also, faster foils might require an adjustment in wing design to cope (EDIT eg to maintain handling and efficient use) with the higher average apparent wind speeds. However, who knows whether wing racing is going to become a 'thing' which will need designs in a different space to what has come thus far...

That set me to wondering. What would a wing specific hydrofoil look like? What is missing in the currently available foils?

Its all about speed profile for the wing.

Ocean waves move at 8 to 12 mph, most normal sized waves. The key to FOIL surfing was getting wings to work at these slower speeds.

I recall from my windsurfing days that a windsurfer started to plane at 17 mph. Much faster than a typical ride on a wave. These wingding specific foils will probably be optimal in the 12 to 20 mph range. Meaning slightly thinner and faster than a good wing for surfing in typical crappy waves.

I think you are right. We have great instant lift and cruise wings like the Axis 1020 and 920 which are still really thick but then there is a pretty radical change to the (notably faster) high aspect wings like the 1000 and 900 which are quite thin. It leaves a lot of middle ground. A thinned out version of the 920 for instance would be a very interesting wing.

The only thing that I could see being a benefit is a foil that rides waves as good as they do now and have better up wind speed. I'm dropping to some smaller boards soon so hopefully that'll speed things up a bit for me. I feel like I'm the freight truck on the water as the kite foilers are like cars passing me by. I wouldn't want to give up surf ability for speed since riding waves and swell is where it's at for me.

I notice if I'm on the Axis 1020, I get more pressure in the handles due to its speed than I do with the 1000 which is way faster. I rode the Neil Pryde large yesterday and it was a bit of an in between of the two Axis foils in regards to getting on foil and speed of riding and hand pressure but, the pump in the ocean swell wasn't as good as ether of the Axis foils. I'm still in the thinking of people are going to have to buy what works for their ability, weight and conditions. Marketing sucks since all the companies say the same thing about their products.